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Topic subjectForbes' classification system for "self-made". There's levels
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13273862, Forbes' classification system for "self-made". There's levels
Posted by PimpTrickGangstaClik, Thu Jul-12-18 02:24 PM
https://www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2014/10/02/the-new-forbes-400-self-made-score-from-silver-spooners-to-boostrappers/#1f055272aff6

Since the launch of The Forbes 400, first published in 1982, we’ve been keeping a close tab on the wealthiest people in the U.S. And while we can tell a whole lot about how their fortunes have evolved, this year, for the first time, we decided to delve deeper into one defining characteristic of these billionaires: How far did they climb to make their way to the top?

This year, we gave each member of The Forbes 400 a score on a scale from 1 to 10 -- a 1 indicating the fortune was completely inherited, while a 10 was for a Horatio Alger-esque journey. We also did the analysis for every 10 years going back to 1984. Looking at the numbers over time, the data lead us to an interesting insight: in 1984, less than half of people on The Forbes 400 were self-made; today, 69% of the 400 created their own fortunes.

After extensive research and internal discussion, we came up with a set of parameters to determine whether someone was born with a silver spoon, or if he (or she) had to battle wrenching personal and family obstacles to win a spot on our list. At the most basic level, the scores denote who inherited some or all of their fortune (scores 1 through 5) and those who truly made it on their own (6 through 10).

We looked carefully at these billionaires' upbringing, paying special attention to their parents and their socio-economic status. To merit a score of 10, a member of the Forbes 400 would have to have been born into poverty, or lower middle class, and had to overcome obstacles such as being left an orphan, forced to work low-paying jobs, or faced abuse or discrimination. Oprah Winfrey, who grew up dirt poor, raised alternately by her single mom and her grandmother, and was sexually abused by several male relatives, and George Soros, who survived the Nazi occupation of Budapest, fled Hungary under Communist rule and worked his way through the London School of Economics as a railway porter and a waiter, are prime examples of what a 10 represents.


A score of 1 represents a member of The Forbes 400 who has inherited a fortune and hasn’t actively worked to increase it. Two examples: Christy Walton, who inherited part of the Wal-Mart fortune after her husband John (Sam Walton's son) died; and Laurene Powell Jobs, a philanthropist and activist who has very publicly taken on causes like education reform and immigration policy but who is not working to make herself richer.

Below, see a breakdown of our scores, along with a representative member of The Forbes 400 for each score. In every member of the Forbes 400's online profile page, you'll be able to find their individual self-made score. These provide a good window from which to draw conclusions about the evolution of wealth in the U.S. Over the past 30 years, the number of Forbes 400 members who forges their own path, using entrepreneurial capitalism as a means to attain a vast fortune, has increased dramatically. This tells us many things, but one should stand taller than the rest: the American Dream, it seems, is alive and well.

1: Inherited fortune but not working to increase it: Laurene Powell Jobs

2: Inherited fortune and has a role managing it: Forrest Mars Jr.

3: Inherited fortune and helping to increase it marginally: Penny Pritzker

4: Inherited fortune and increasing it in a meaningful way: Henry Ross Perot Jr.

5: Inherited small or medium-size business and made it into a ten-digit fortune: Donald Trump

6: Hired or hands-off investor who didn’t create the business: Meg Whitman

7: Self-made who got a head start from wealthy parents and moneyed background: Rupert Murdoch

8: Self-made who came from a middle- or upper-middle-class background: Mark Zuckerberg

9: Self-made who came from a largely working-class background; rose from little to nothing: Eddie Lampert

10: Self-made who not only grew up poor but also overcame significant obstacles: Oprah Winfrey